It meets at North Warehouse at Gloucester Docks and has its main offices within the Eastgate Shopping Centre.

[5] The city was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan district on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972.

[6] The city's boundaries were enlarged in 1991, notably gaining the parish of Quedgeley from Stroud District.

[8] The Quedgeley area of the city is also a civil parish with a town council, which forms a third tier of local government.

[10] Political control of the council since the 1974 reforms has been as follows:[11][12] The role of Mayor of Gloucester is largely ceremonial.

The former Kimberley and Philpotts warehouses were incorporated into Herbert Warehouse via glazed linking sections being added between them, with a public house and retail uses on the ground floor and additional council offices on the upper floors.

[37] In 2019 the council vacated Herbert Warehouse, instead leasing office space for its staff within Shire Hall and also acquiring a former shop at 92–96 Westgate Street to be the council's main public reception, called "The Gateway".